Daily Deals Site Tippr Cuts Jobs
Story updated from 5:11 p.m. ET with comments from company.
NEW YORK (
) -- In another sign of stiff competition in the daily deals space, Seattle-based deals company
Tippr
has undergone layoffs within the last few weeks, the company confirmed to
TheStreet
Tippr, which previously had a staff of around 120, has reduced its headcount to roughly 90. The layoffs were in the company's merchant acquisition team, which is responsible for finding deals to place in its marketplace, Tippr said.
The company said that it is focused on building its technology group, rather than its sales team.
Tippr, which targets its deals both at consumers and publishers who use its white-label product, has raised $9 million in funding from New York-based RRE Ventures.
The company has expanded quickly through acquisitions of the WhitePages' social buying website, DealPop, as well as Chicago-based Chitown Deals. It's currently in 17 cities including Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego.
Tippr has also been involved in patent litigation, targeting 14 other deals companies including
BuyWithMe
and
DealOn
for alleged patent infringement.
The layoffs at Tippr are just the latest shakeup to affect the daily deals space.
Boston-based BuyWithMe slashed half its workforce after rapid expansion to keep up with rivals
Groupon
and
LivingSocial
and is reportedly being acquired by
Gilt Groupe
.
Groupon, meanwhile, scaled back the size of its November IPO to around $540 million, down significantly from its original plan to raise $750 million
amid market volatility, turnover among upper management and questions
about its accounting practices.
While the original IPO plans sought to place a valuation on the whole company of $25 billion, the scaled-back offering implies a valuation of around $12 billion as Groupon is selling less stock at a reduced price range.
--
Written by Olivia Oran in New York
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